Month: September 2017

It is reported that Palestine will seek the arrest of exiled former-minister Mohammed Dahlan, convicted in his absence of stealing public funds, following its acceptance as a member of Interpol (see previous blog). However, Dahlan believes the charges against him, which were made 2 days after his rival President Abbas removed his parliamentary immunity, to have been politically motivated.

Dahlan is currently resident in the UAE, where he is said to have close ties to the country’s rulers. This raises some doubt as to whether Palestine will be able to secure his extradition.

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We previously reported that Michal Herba was challenging Italy’s request that he be extradited from the UK to face allegations of being involved in the kidnapping of model Chloe Ayling. A judge has now ruled against him, and his case will be referred to the High Court. Herba’s lawyers had argued that the entire case was a publicity stunt, but District Judge Paul Goldspring said of the “open source” material they relied on that it was “not evidence to support it being a sham”.

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Spain has said that it will not extradite a Turkish-Swedish journalist to Turkey, following his arrest in August on allegations of links to terrorism. Hamza Yalcin has twice been granted asylum by Sweden, where he gained nationality in 2006, and under Spanish law people with refugee status cannot be extradited.

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Natasha Hayes, resident in the UK for 7 years, is challenging an extradition request from Belgium where she faces a 3-year jail sentence for child abduction. She was found guilty in her absence of abducting her son when she left Belgium with him in February 2010. A previous extradition request for her was dismissed by the courts in 2012, on the basis of her Article 8 right to a family life. Since that time she has married and had 2 more children. She was arrested on a European Arrest Warrant earlier this month and has been bailed awaiting trial.

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President Erdogan of Turkey has proposed that the US extradite Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey accuses of masterminding an attempted coup in July 2016, in return for jailed US pastor Andrew Brunson. Gulen has reportedly said that he will willingly return from the US to Turkey if his extradition is approved, but believes Turkey has provided no evidence to suggest his involvement in the attempted coup.

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Google has published its latest Transparency Report, which presents the statistics for all government requests of user data. The number of these requests has increased from 28,000 in 2010 to over 90,000 in the past year. Over that period, the percentage of these requests that resulted in the production of some data for the requesting entity has also fallen from 76% to 65%.

Google also said that the US should update its Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which regulates government monitoring of communications, “to enable countries that commit to baseline privacy, due process, and human rights principles to make direct requests to US providers”. It believes that this will reduce incentives for dangerous investigative techniques that weaken human rights standards. In this context, Google also advocates for improvements to Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty processes, to ensure a robust and transparent framework for governing requests for data across jurisdictions.

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Sri Lanka’s parliament has voted in favour of extradition agreements with China, Russia, Ukraine, and Vietnam. Sri Lanka’s Minister of Justice, Thalatha Atukorala, said during debates that she expected Sri Lanka to work together with the other countries to implement the agreements.